In several episodes Terminator Zero from Netflix, it feels like anime is the perfect way to show off the horror of this dystopia. Much more so when it’s explored in a new dimension. This anime is the first addition to the saga that doesn’t feature Sarah and John Connor as the center of the conflict. Rather, it explores a world that can create an AI powerful enough to be autonomous. And then destroy human life.The question arises soon, so in the first chapters the production tries to describe it.
The series is set in 1990 and reflects on power. But it does so not through simple perspectives, but rather through the risks it entails. World Terminator Zero It hasn’t yet faced the apocalypse of 1997, but it could cause one. It’s because of greed and the natural state of man, prone to self-destruction. The production is terrifying, showing what man is capable of, and in fact, some of its best scenes appeal to the same obsessions as the film series. From free will to the substance of time and reality. The anime takes the best of the first two films in the franchise, the only ones worth considering at this point. analyze your scenario – and take it to new extremes.
In fact, the anime manages to convey a terrifying and detailed beauty both to the dystopian future and the horrors it holds, and to the steampunk past. If in the saga we could barely see what a world ruled by robots is like and how one can survive in it, then in Terminator Zero used in traumatic sequences. Which makes the series as a whole much more cohesive, better constructed, and with more attention to the central plot points than any other film since the second one. A soft rebootwhich allows the Terminator saga to regain its sinister and terrifying appearance. Also, give Netflix’s output a smart take on sci-fi and horror.
New threat
In Japan, Malcolm Lee (André Holland) is developing a defense AI that he hopes will have global applications in the long term. In fact, in the universe Terminator Zero, Cyberdyne Systems Skynetis a reference, but remains a promise at a distance. The series cleverly establishes early on that what has already been told in the films is only one of the many possible catastrophes that could happen. But in this case it is a completely new threat.
Malcolm is a member of the team at the Japanese company Cortex Industries. And for starters Terminator Zerohas just discovered the capabilities of Kokoro; an artificial intelligence (voiced by Rosario Dawson) whose use and search for competition from Skynet is diversified much more completely than its North American version. Which, in the end, could pose a threat to the creepy and famous autonomous system already known in the saga. The script immediately establishes parallels in the form of control it explores, and both systems can work. And in fact, one of the most interesting elements of the series is how nothing seems random. Besides, in Terminator Zero the possibility is being explored that technological responsibility is more of a moral concept.
This point becomes very clear when Malcolm begins to be haunted by strange and violent images of a nuclear holocaust. The series takes the idea of the collective panic of the early 1980s and turns it into episodes so brutal and violent that they become a major milestone in the franchise. But more than that, contextualize what Kokoro or Skynet’s attack on the world might actually symbolize. More than ever, what’s at stake in the present and future feels like a tipping point for the characters. Much more so for Malcolm, a father of three who, after his graphic delusions suspects that the military use of AI is more serious than it seems.
A powerful enemy that must be defeated
Convinced that his work could lead to cataclysm, Malcolm begins to ponder the moral complexities involved in creating Kokoro, and how this step could be the first of many on a path to more extreme situations. That’s when he begins to be stalked by a mysterious killer (Timothy Olyphant). which is nothing more than a version of the T-800 already known in the saga.
By chance and especially thanks to the anime format, the robot is no longer just a menacing machine with an anthropomorphic appearance. Its artificial nature is more obvious, and yet it tells a different story than Arnold Schwarzenegger’s mighty T-800 or Robert Patrick’s T-1000. Delivered from 2022, it seems larger, less finished and is clearly a previous model compared to the one already seen. Director Masashi Kudo gives his killer a personality that is very much related to the world he comes from. Which makes the whole narrative more interesting.
Of course, anime’s ability to show violence more explicitly suits the show’s tone perfectly. And it’s used in some of its best moments. Terminator Zero. With the same military air and unstoppable killer, the killer robot that pursues Malcolm fails to feel like anything more than a tool. Where much of the Terminator saga attempted to explore the supposed redemption or humanity of robots, Terminator Zero takes a different route. More effective due to its intelligence and brilliant ability to surprise, it is the most notable moment of the plot.
Time goes against
As is the case with any story set in a respected saga, Terminator Zero It has a morally ambiguous hero. Someone who will stand up and risk their life for their mission, in this case, protecting Malcolm Lee. This time, it’s Eiko (Sonoya Mizuno). who has a lot in common with Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) from the first part of the saga.
But beyond being the story’s antihero, Eiko is a link in the war against the machines that is being waged in the future. Arriving in 2022, she is terrified of the consequences of possible failure and becomes enraged when she realizes the origins of the reality she grew up in. Most of Terminator Zthen tries to explore the past of 1997 (and everything that Malcolm represents, in case his project with Kokoro comes to fruition) and complete destruction.
Animation that works as promised
For this reason, the script takes great care to explore the darker sides of her character. Especially as the plot reaches its darkest point and it becomes clear that all is not as it seems. Her need to save Malcolm and her children is a dark combination of a desire for justice and, ultimately, hope. But between the two, the character is most visible when she is silent. than when the plot tries to explain what drives its decisions.
In Chapter 4, the steampunk and industrial feel of the series is visually linked to previous animations by Production IG, the studio responsible for the project. There are many Ghost in the Shell or Psycho-Passin terms of showing horror scenes and fighting scenes. What makes its last segment insane, there is more haste than necessary and possibly a failure of the series as a wholein visual delight.
Certainly, Terminator Zero It ends the eight-part series by announcing a possible sequel. But one thing is clear. This new scenario, in which the battle for humanity’s survival will unfold, is richer, more believable, and better presented than any film since the 1991 sequel. An achievement that makes the animated film a triumph. and a new face for a saga that needed it.
Source: Hiper Textual
